Strong arm of the law: Former New Milford High softball star pursues career in FBI

By Kevin Duffy, STAFF WRITER

Published 11:51 pm, Saturday, January 16, 2010

It's winter break and former New Milford High softball star Meg Johnson finally has a reprieve from the strenuous lifestyle of being a Division I student-athlete.

For a month, there are no more exams, early-morning workouts or late-night study sessions.

There is, however, an abundance of free time.

And Johnson knows exactly how she wants to spend hers.

On this particular afternoon, Johnson sits at a New Milford Starbucks, secluded in a well-cushioned seat with a book in her hand.

A coffee rests on the table right in front of her, but she rarely motions toward it.

Her eyes -- and her undivided attention -- are locked on the book.

She leans in a bit closer, her eyes swiftly darting back-and-forth across the page.

Is the plot heating up? Has the prince just rescued the princess? Why is this book so riveting?

"Oh, I just got to blood spatters," Johnson says.

That's right -- blood spatters.

Johnson has reached chapter two of "The Forensic Casebook," a 302-page guide to crime scene evidence analysis.

And she has the notes to prove it.

Several paragraphs on page 98 -- the introduction to blood spatters -- are highlighted in various colors.

"Yellow is the most important," she says. "Then orange, then pink, green and blue, you know?"

This is the same way she codes her notes at school.

It's also the same way she codes "to-do" lists that hang above her bed in her Yale dormitory.

And, according to roommate Taylor Sankovich, Johnson arranges her clothes by color as well.

Go ahead and call her crazy -- she's certainly heard it before.

Johnson was in the fall of her junior year at New Milford High -- fresh off an all-state softball season as a sophomore -- when she was introduced to Yale softball coach Barbara Reinalda.

Reinalda was interested in recruiting Johnson to play shortstop.

"I knew right away that I wanted to go there," Johnson said.

Here's the catch, though: Ivy League schools don't give athletic scholarships. Johnson had to meet Yale's academic standards first, and then she could join the softball team.

Teachers discouraged her. Students mocked her. Even her guidance counselor told her she should look elsewhere because Yale was "a reach."

Johnson didn't care.

"Everything is about setting a plan," she said. "So you have to sit down and analyze, `This is what I want to do, now how do I get there?'"

Naturally, she made a "to-do" list and hung it over her bed.

At the top of the paper, Johnson wrote "Get into Yale" and below that, she penned all the steps -- both academically and athletically -- that she needed to take.

"She focuses on the little things, whether it's making sure she's on time for a workout or making note cards on a certain day," Sankovich said. "And accomplishing those little things helps her reach the big goals."

Johnson lived the next two years of her life by a phrase she still uses to this day: "For every minute you slack, there's someone else working hard to beat you."

So, when she won 11 All-SWC honors (she also played basketball and volleyball), three All-State selections and received an acceptance letter to Yale, it certainly wasn't by accident.

It was the result of two-hour sessions in the gym, daily ACT tutoring that lasted twice as long and stints in the batting cages that lasted until Johnson was (semi) satisfied.

Though she calls her admission to Yale her "most rewarding accomplishment," the celebration didn't last long.

Johnson's acceptance letter -- and her spot on the Bulldogs softball team -- was just one small step toward her ultimate goal: "Work for the FBI."

It was a goal she set when she was 10-years-old, one that was inspired by her grandfather (she calls him "Mr. Military), not by FBI-related television dramas like CSI.

In fact, she rarely ever watches the show.

"I don't think Meg could sit through a whole episode," joked Yale softball teammate McKynlee Westman. "She'd rather be out there doing it herself."

While she's only a sophomore in college, Johnson -- a biological anthropology major -- has been prepping for the FBI for quite some time.

Somewhere between falling just short of 1,000 career points in basketball and earning her third consecutive All-State softball nomination, Johnson carried out a senior science project at New Milford entitled "The effect of different gun and bullet combinations on blunt force trauma on an officer with bulletproof vest."

Following her freshman year at Yale -- one in which she batted .342 and led the Ivy League in triples (9) -- Johnson took kickboxing, boxing and shooting lessons.

And she's even prepared herself for the cultural component of the FBI. Johnson recently passed a fluency test in Spanish, a language that her mother taught her when she was 12 years old so they could "talk to each other without her dad and brother listening in."

Johnson's bi-lingual abilities have come in handy outside the house, too. Sometimes, Johnson's mother calls her and asks "Where are you?" to which Johnson will sometimes reply, in Spanish, "I'm on a very awkward date right now."

Oddly enough, Johnson's biggest break was the result of an awkward situation, not the hard work and perseverance that brought her to Yale in the first place.

It was the beginning of her freshman year and Johnson sat down for lunch with a girl that she "kind of knew-ish."

The two made small talk and Johnson learned that the girl's mother worked in internal investigations for Novartis, a leading pharmaceutical company in the United States.

By coincidence, the girl's mother was visiting that weekend, and, by an even greater coincidence, she offered Johnson an internship upon meeting her. Johnson gladly accepted and worked at Novartis -- investigating policy violations within the company -- this past summer.

One day after work, Johnson was making small talk with her boss when she was asked "So what do you want to do when you graduate?"

"Don't laugh," Johnson replied. "But I want to work for the FBI."

Johnson's boss couldn't help but chuckle, however.

After all, she was in the FBI for 24 years.

She made a few calls and set Johnson up with the lead agent in the New Haven branch, a few blocks away from Johnson's Yale dorm room.

"It was just a huge lucky coincidence," Johnson said. "I didn't have to pick that seat (next to the girl in the Yale dining hall). I had a different group of friends on the other side. I could have sat anywhere."

Johnson qualified for the FBI Honors internship, but, because of age restrictions, must wait until next summer to become an intern.

It's an opportunity she's planned for, no doubt, but also one that she believes she was destined for all along.

"It's one of those things where every person is meant to do something," Johnson said. "As seemingly insignificant as it may be, every person does something for the right reasons. I think everything has happened for a reason."